the one with the onesies

My sisters and mom threw a great baby shower over the holidays in honor of the baby. I've actually been honored and very blessed to have three baby showers with various groups of people that mean so much to me! Each one was special and perfect in their own way and I couldn't feel more supported going into this parenthood thing.

In honor of this project that I call the blog, the hosts of this particular shower decided to have some craft time, making something for the baby. It was AWESOME! Various sizes of the much-needed (so I've heard) white onesies were spread across the kitchen table along with stencils, paints, and iron on patches. It will be so fun to see the baby wearing clothes hand-painted by some of my favorite people!

^one of my faves created by my 8-year-old niece^

^my sister, Jennie, and friend, Amanda^

^my cousin's baby, Molly, thought it was pretty cool^

Can't wait to see the baby sporting all these cool onesies!

Thanks!

4 weeks and counting

Hello all!

It has been such a long time since I've spent any time working on the blog. But while I've not been writing, life has been filled with many changes and times requiring much gumptious living!  We've gone from living in the basement apartment at my husband's parents' house, to remodeling (still!) a house with our bare hands, while growing a child, and preparing for life as parents.  It's been busy to say the least.

As the days are speeding past at neck-jarring speeds, I am finding myself  about 4 weeks away from holding my child in my arms, knowing if it's a son or a daughter, and probably learning how to keep a little one alive in a "baby-horse-standing-up-for-the-first-time" kind of way.  I can't wait and yet I'm terrified all at once. I'm sure (hoping) that these are normal feelings to be having at this point in the pregnancy.

Well, tonight I'd like to share some of my favorite moments of creativity or gumption over the past few months during this time of craziness.  I will of course make the blanket statement that the house has been one of my favorite transformations/projects that I have poured my energy into and there will be many pictures to come, I just need to sort through them.  But here are some of the other, smaller ways that some gumption has been in my life.

1. homemade forks.

Our first meal in the house was take out from a local Italian restaurant. After I was sure to ask for utensils, they of course did not come with our meals. So, Seth decided to create our own homemade utensils so we could eat our salads.

2. The hardwood floors!! 

Huck and Brody agree that they like the hardwoods better now that they are sanded and restained. We spent a long weekend sanding and sanding and sanding. These pictures don't do the floors total justice, but I promise, they make the entire upstairs floor of our house lovely (especially with Huck's fur pile for a rug).

3. the griddle

We have lived here about 4 months using a griddle and microwave- no stove, no oven, and no counter tops until recently.... This has forced some great creativity in the "kitchen" and truthfully I've surprised myself with some decent meals. anyway, this little kitchen device called a griddle has sparked some great culinary creativity for a very necessary part of life. 

4. rocking chair

call me old fashioned, but I love hand-me-downs and family heirlooms. We adopted this sweet little number from my grandmother's house and it is wonderful! I love that classic creaking sound it makes while rocking.  As we have unpacked our boxes of our belongings that we haven't seen in over a year, I am so thankful for the generous and amazing hand-me-downs that have been gifted to us over the years. Not only am I nostalgic, but it totally supports what I believe in and why I write this blog!

5. library for the baby

Lastly, I am in complete nesting phase. Even though we don't have a working washer and dryer, we don't have a stove, no pictures on the walls, no photographs in frames sitting around reflecting our lives, I am nesting in that little room that we call the baby's. It is painted. It has a few pieces of furniture. My mother and father-in-law got us an amazing gliding rocking chair in the corner.  As I sit in that chair and look around and picture being a mama, I look at the shelf on the opposite wall with a small row of books stacked up neatly against one another. They are collected from our childhoods, and a handful have been given by friends and family over the past few months.  I can't wait to read to this little one. This is one of my favorite parts of the baby's room. 

Hope you are all having a great week. 

thanks for stopping by!

House update and some news!

I am sitting in a Panera right now, trying to purposely take a break from working on the house.  It is slowly morphing into a dwelling that we call home....  We've taken all of our ideas (that seemed so simple) from the past few months and started to actually make them happen- its a slow go, but it's going! 

I've taken a stab at patching drywall holes. 

My selfie here truly represents how this whole process feels.

 The whole process of patching one hole was much more timely than I expected.  I thought if I just slap some drywall mud in there, it would dry and could be sanded to smoothness. But of course nothing goes like I think, and the hole had the braced by supports (2x4's), patched with a small piece of drywall, and then coated with several. SEVERAL. coats of mud.   I thought the bathroom would be painted weeks ago, and it's still currently all spotted up. But man, those walls are smooth, and a fresh coat of paint will hopefully hide all the evidence of my work!

Next onto carpet.  I don't know about you, but moving into a new house, especially one that hasn't had some good TLC in a few years, I daydream/nightmare about the disgustingness of the carpet.  I picture skin flakes and cut toenails from the previous owner's feet positioned in the fibers, like a defense left from him for the new owners.  Gross. So, in one grand attempt, with a hearty meal in my belly, I pulled up the carpet in the hall way and 2 bedrooms. Here is the glorious outcome! 

The carpet was the easy part. these little rascals ^see tack strips above^ were a bear to remove from the hardwood under the carpet. There were many a grunts and a swear words thrown around during the process of prying these up along the perimeters of the rooms. 

I'll throw in Seth's main project because, let's be real, what I'm doing has nothing on his work!

Seth is in charge of the kitchen.  I'll give you a little taste of the work so far, which I'm sure later I'll highlight this amazing project in greater detail. 

Before...

After...

^^not sure what happened to the lens of the camera here, but oh well, I guess it rightly captures that everything is covered in sawdust these days!

Seth has been doing an awesome job of opening up this whole space for our vision of an open floor plan concept.   We are both so excited to see how this comes together as we start putting in cupboards and counter tops soon! 

We have been so blessed by this house,  And of course as I sit here in Panera, sort of not wanting to go back and be surrounded/annoyed by the mess, I am reminded what a gift we have to have a house and to really make it our own. And I'll share one of my favorite and most grounding bible verses for this past year since it popped into my head while sitting here. 

"Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains."

James 5:7

This verse reminds me that bit by bit, we will get our home put together, It won't happen overnight. Anything this big is totally worth the wait and worth taking our time to do it right.

AND

Announcing our biggest alteration....

We are happy to be bringing a new baby into the world into February 2015! 

^the Gamechanger^

Thanks for stopping by!

A new dwelling

Good news here! We have officially bought a new (to us) house!! Life lately has been consumed with planning, projects, buying, take out, working, and then sitting to recover.

Our home search was an eight month endeavor, and we are happy it is over.  Back at the end of May, Seth found this house online and insisted to our realtor that we look at it.  It was a foreclosure and one that needs a bit of work, but we both started to get excited about the idea of "flipping" another house and making it cool again (at least cool in our eyes). See the first house that we flipped here. 

So, without further ado, here is our new child- a split level on a quiet neighborhood street.  We've had a contractor get some work done already (per the bank's requirements) and now is our turn to make some big changes prior to moving in.

The exterior- needs a new shutter(s), some paint on the trim, and a little landscaping love. 

 Welcome! This is the view from walking in the front door, heading up to the kitchen. 

Left: View to the bedroom side of the house.

Right: View from bedrooms to the living area side of house. 

 Oh, the colors!

 Dining room, with a window that looks out into the fireplace room (that's what we are calling it, but it is a second living room.)

Bedroom #1

 Bedroom #2

 Bedroom #3- The Master

This picture is self-explanatory.  

Backyard/Jungle

 Back porch

  YES! A basketball hoop in the driveway! Soooo suburbia!

So, there she is.  I didn't include the garage, basement living space, 2nd bathroom, or laundry room. I'm sure I'll add more pictures later. 

For now, I'm spending almost all of my free time on projects, of which I'm hoping to share on here.

Anyone doing some home projects this fall?

Time

I am having a hard time wrapping around the fact that it is September.  It's September!

I have had this topic of time on my mind lately. Time in relation to daily tasks, as well as the big dates in the near future that seem to get here faster and faster. And because there are too many daily tasks to fit into a day and too many of these big life happenings, like buying a fixer-upper house, thrown into the mix, it seems that I have been living life lately attached to lists and my day planner.

I don't know if you live like this, but I need to find some kind of reprieve.  I know that organization and lists are important, but they don't leave room for the possibility of spontaneity or life's unexpectedness. 

So here are some ways that I have tried to change the list-living.

1. PRIORITIZE.  Spend some time figuring out what exactly you want to do on a daily basis, then weekly, monthly, etc.  For example, I need to work out daily (or at least several times a week) for my sanity, not to mention health. Or taking time to make real food for dinner in the evenings- it is a priority for me not be eating out (often), buying boxed dinners, or eating overly processed foods.  My only caution here is to be realistic, don't make too many daily priorities. Really, just make it the absolute priorities!

2. Schedule time for yourself.  I often find in the middle of a workweek that I need time to be alone- even if it's a 20 minute nap.  And I miss writing, or blogging/thinking/doing things that are related to this blog, so here I am making time for it. 

3. Pay attention to "time wasting".  This is a biggie for me.  And one area specifically I can identify is TV in the evenings.  I can somehow get transfixed for over an hour of doing nothing else but sitting and watching.  Don't get me wrong, being able to relax is important too, but do I really need an hour every evening? 

4.  Be present.  While at work, be there. While with your loved ones, be there.  This is far better easier said that done, but is always a good reminder.

5.  Get sleep! I am the most unproductive when I am tired. I'm cranky, slow, and can't put together complete sentences.  This is probably the most difficult one for me.  I can always cut back on a half hour of sleep- that's what coffees for! But being chronically tired really does impact your health, your immunity, and down the road, it will add up! Shoot for at least 7 hours.  And if it means going to bed 15 minutes earlier to start making sure you get that, do it, and then add to that 15 minutes to increase your sleep.

I hope you are all off to a great September.  Happy Labor Day!